September 11th, 2001

I know this is coming a few days late to commemorate the anniversary.  I wasn’t going to say anything about it because I felt like others had done a far better than I could.

In lieu of commentary, I would direct anybody reading to give the following link some time.

http://project2996.wordpress.com/

Also, I know that times are tough for many people, but if you have any money to spare, think about donating to a September 11th charity of your choice.

9/11/01.  Never forget.

Yeah, about Joe Wilson’s “You Lie!” holler during Obama’s speech

I can’t get too upset about it.

Not when the Democrats hooted and hollered over Bush’s State of the Union Speeches.

If Wilson is guilty of anything, it’s that he didn’t call out the President in a group of representatives, like the Donkey-Puncher congressmen did back in the day.  Wilson made the mistake of going alone, which made it easy for him to be singled out.  It’s like when you mess around in class in high school.  If it’s just you doing it, you’re gonna get nailed.  When it’s you and five other people, the teacher has a hard time giving you a detention.

In the case, the crocodile tears of Joe Biden, Pelosi and Rahmbo Emanuel are hilariously hypocritical.

ACORN just got uber-pwned

Andrew Breitbart kicks off his new internet jam the right way:  By annihilating the foot-soldiers of the hard Left. 

The filmmaker, James O’Keefe, starts spreading teh hawt succulent chaos by posing as a pimp, then asking ACORN workers how to set up his prostitute as a legitimate business enterprise.

Click on the clips for the rather shocking response from the ACORN employees.

The glee on “Shira’s” face as she tells her clients that their child-prostitution scam is “fine”……..creeeeeeeeepy.

Breitbart, you magnificent bastard.

Update:  Holy shhhhhhhhiiiiiiiiit.  I just picked up on the fact that the dude was also asking the ACORN babes how to funnel the prostitution money into his congressional campaign.  Hahahahahahaaaaaaaaaa, it just gets more awesomely horrible.  Seriosuly, watch the videos now.

Charles Boustany, MD (R-Louisianna) rebuts Obama’s speech

It’s not breathtaking, but it’s reasonable.

I will admit:  This is not nearly as flashy as the Obamessiah’s big ole’  address to Congress.  On the other hand, it’s got a few things going for it.  For one, the plan doesn’t seem to be based on unicorn farts, gum-drop smiles or any other magical items in order to pay for it.  The other cool part is that Boustany’s speech indicates that the conservatives don’t want to blow up 1/6 th of the US economy just to make sure that five people in Albuquerque have access to an affordable foot fungus prescription program.

Thomas Freidman Wubs One-Party Rule

 

Thomas Friedman likes to cuddle up with Far Eastern autocrats.  Who knew?

Watching both the health care and climate/energy debates in Congress, it is hard not to draw the following conclusion: There is only one thing worse than one-party autocracy, and that is one-party democracy, which is what we have in America today.

One-party autocracy certainly has its drawbacks. But when it is led by a reasonably enlightened group of people, as China is today, it can also have great advantages. That one party can just impose the politically difficult but critically important policies needed to move a society forward in the 21st century. It is not an accident that China is committed to overtaking us in electric cars, solar power, energy efficiency, batteries, nuclear power and wind power. China’s leaders understand that in a world of exploding populations and rising emerging-market middle classes, demand for clean power and energy efficiency is going to soar. Beijing wants to make sure that it owns that industry and is ordering the policies to do that, including boosting gasoline prices, from the top down.

Our one-party democracy is worse.

 

A lot of people have teed off on Friedman’s unabashed dictator-love…rightly so in my opinion.  It’s a hot mess. 

What’s really bad is how far into the weeds Tommy goes after he rhetorically fellates the ChiComs for their enlightened iron fist rule.

The fact is, on both the energy/climate legislation and health care legislation, only the Democrats are really playing. With a few notable exceptions, the Republican Party is standing, arms folded and saying “no.” Many of them just want President Obama to fail. Such a waste. Mr. Obama is not a socialist; he’s a centrist. But if he’s forced to depend entirely on his own party to pass legislation, he will be whipsawed by its different factions.

Look at the climate/energy bill that came out of the House. Its sponsors had to work twice as hard to produce this breakthrough cap-and-trade legislation. Why? Because with basically no G.O.P. representatives willing to vote for any price on carbon that would stimulate investments in clean energy and energy efficiency, the sponsors had to rely entirely on Democrats — and that meant paying off coal-state and agriculture Democrats with pork. Thank goodness, it is still a bill worth passing. But it could have been much better — and can be in the Senate. Just give me 8 to 10 Republicans ready to impose some price on carbon, and they can be leveraged against Democrats who want to water down the bill.

What a whining fuck-nugget.

Then Friedman really gets funny.

The G.O.P. used to be the party of business. Well, to compete and win in a globalized world, no one needs the burden of health insurance shifted from business to government more than American business. No one needs immigration reform — so the world’s best brainpower can come here without restrictions — more than American business. No one needs a push for clean-tech — the world’s next great global manufacturing industry — more than American business. Yet the G.O.P. today resists national health care, immigration reform and wants to just drill, baby, drill.

“Globalization has neutered the Republican Party, leaving it to represent not the have-nots of the recession but the have-nots of globalized America, the people who have been left behind either in reality or in their fears,” said Edward Goldberg, a global trade consultant who teaches at Baruch College. “The need to compete in a globalized world has forced the meritocracy, the multinational corporate manager, the eastern financier and the technology entrepreneur to reconsider what the Republican Party has to offer. In principle, they have left the party, leaving behind not a pragmatic coalition but a group of ideological naysayers.”

This column is such a hodge-podge.  It’s hard to believe that an actual adult wrote it.  Instead, if you took the name off of it, you’d think it was written by a soft-leftist undergrad with ADHD.  It ping-pongs from abject dictatorship-envy to pathetically begging for the GOP to support bullcrap like cap ‘n’ trade to whining about Republicans being down-market rubes. “I wish we had smart lefties like me with total power just telling everybody what to do!  Why can’t the Republicans be cool with my dreamboat Obama?  They’re a bunch of Neanderthal poopie-heads!”

In reality, this temper-tantrum masquerading as major league journalism is a reaction to Teleprompter Jesus’ craptastic August.  It was then that the great unwashed masses rejected the super-genius President’s signature gift of health care reform enlightenment.  In Friedman’s pin-head worldview, ObamaCare’s nationalization of 1/6 of the US economy is just a pragmatic centrist reform, so it’s just ignorant that can’t right-wingers just give shut the hell up and cheerily sign onto the coming nanny super-state.

Drudge has breaking news: The Democrats don’t have the votes

For nowat least.  Rahmbo hasn’t sent out the dead-fish-o-grams to any nervous Blue Dogs yet.

At least 44 more moderate Members of the Democrat Caucus have gone on the record in opposition to the current health care bill in the House, Hill source claims. Likewise, at least 57 liberal Members of the Democrat Caucus have gone on the record saying they will vote against a health care bill without a strong public option. In other words, unless multiple Democrats flip on their stated position on health care, Speaker Pelosi lacks the votes to pass a bill through the House on the strength of Democrat votes alone…

…On July 31, 2009, the Congressional Progressive Caucus sent a letter to Speaker Pelosi expressing their opposition to a weakening of the public option. The letter on behalf of 57 Progressive Democrats concludes, “In short, this agreement will result in the public, both as insurance purchasers and as taxpayers, paying ever higher rates to insurance companies. We simply cannot vote for such a proposal.” The text can be read here: http://cpc.grijalva.house.gov/uploads/57%20member%20letter%20to%20PelosiWaxman%207%2030%2009.pdf

Wow.  How does St. Barry play this out in front of the TV cameras tonight?

Van Jones: Persona Non Grata For The Brave Truth-Seeking Press

Hmmmmmmmmmmm.

At the White House press briefing today [ed-Spetember 8th, 2009], Robert Gibbs didn’t field a single question about the avowed communist/black nationalist/cop-killer supporter/9-11 Truther Van Jones, who resigned from his White House post shortly after 12:00 a.m. Sunday. In fact, a search for the name “Van Jones” doesn’t turn up a single result in the White House press briefing transcripts…

…The White House threw one of its own under the bus in the middle of the night so it wouldn’t have to answer these questions in broad daylight. It seems that the media are more than happy to play along with the administration.

Tacky move on the part of the press, but can you blame them?  They never reported on this Van Jones clown.  Never gave him so much as a second thought.  Then-because of Gateway Pundit, Glenn Beck and others-the firestorm ignites over Jones.  Still the media cannot be bothered to discuss him.  Then he shit-cans himself at midnight this past Sunday. 

Now  sure there is a whole bunch of funny stuff going on there, but let’s say you’re some press-corps hack with a crush on St. Barry of the Sexy Pants-Crease.  You’re in a room full of other starstruck swooners in the throes of puppy-love with Obama.  Are you gonna be the guy that shits his britches in church by asking a question about Van Jones?

Depressing Chart of the Week

Freakin’ ouch.

Do you want to make good pay, have awesome benefits, and amazing, iron-clad job security? Don’t go looking in the private sector.

New analysis from the BEA, via Cato-at-Liberty, shows that the average Federal worker makes well more than their private sector counterpart.

And look at wage growth. Since 2000, Federal average pay is up 55%, compared to just 29% wage growth in the private sector. And this doesn’t even take into account the awesome health benefits.

Looking at the Obambi Administration, you get the distinct feeling that this trend is only going to get worse.

Found this over at Instapundit.  He’s got related stuff over there, if you’re so inclined to get a slightly depressed feeling about your career choices.

Even more can be found at this post by directorblue over at Hot Air’s Green Room.

Is Obama stupid or stubborn?

Dude got kicked in the head all summer on his health care reform plan.  So what’s Barry the Wonder-Prez doing for an encore?  More of that extra-gooey public option deliciousness.  

President Barack Obama, in a high-stakes speech Wednesday to Congress and the nation, will press for a government-run insurance option in a proposed overhaul of the U.S. health care system that has divided lawmakers and voters for months.

White House officials say the president will detail what he wants in the health-care overhaul, as well as say he is open to better ideas on a government plan if lawmakers have them.

Democratic plans call for requiring most Americans to have health insurance. Failure to comply could cost families as much as $3,800 a year, according to a Senate proposal.

The president is likely to make clear that a government-run insurance plan, known as the “public option,” will not provide a level of subsidies that give it an unfair advantage over private insurers, according to aides familiar with the speech preparations.

Everybody knows that the italicized section is an absolute falsehood.  The president is going to subsidize the hell out of his health care plan, which of course the private sector can’t match.  One reason-the insurance companies don’t have access to a Treasury Department printing press. 

But seriously, why is Obama determined to include a public option?  Besides the death panels, it’s the most hated chunk of this legislation.  He’s even got a few Blue Dog Democrats against it.  So how is he going to sell this turd sandwich tomorrow during his joint Congressional session speech?  It’s the same public option he’s been shilling for the last several months.  It’s not like the public option has suddenly become the magic bullet in the minds of the citizens.  I really don’t understand the point of doubling down-on national television, no less-on something that is beyond the pale for many Americans and many Democrats.

Sorta related: Let’s all give a warm round of applause to Olympia Snowe-yet another feeble-minded RINO jackass-who proposed this idea of a triggering mechanism to create a public option if the insurance companies don’t fall in line.  I cannot for the life of me think why this dipshit Senatorette would throw a lifeline to ObamaCare unless she was a double-agent for the socialists.

Not everybody loves “Downfall” parody clips

Just ask Der Fuhrer.  Sorry I can’t embed it.  This is my first time going on teh internetz. 

If you’ve seen any of the other Downfall parodies, you’re gonna want to clicky that linky.

If you haven’t seen any of these joke clips, Google is your friend. 

Thanks to Jesse Walker over at Reason’s Hit and Run blog.

The Obama collective is strong

Found this over at Feed Your ADHD.  Thanks Dr. Dave.

Obama is for the Children and the Children are for Him

Found children’s art ready for Obambi’s kiddie-korps speech.  Doug TenNapel is a great archeologist or something.

Click the link for more.

Mark Steyn on the Truthers

Once again, the undocumented foreigner who subs for Rush Limbaugh gets it.

Traveling through the Middle East about six months after 9/11, I was struck by the number of Arabs, from Egypt to the Gulf, who simultaneously believed (a) the Mossad were behind the attacks and (b) it was a great victory for the Muslim world. Van Jones would seem to be an American variant of the same phenomenon: a man who believes 9/11 was (a) blowbackfor the actions of the US government’s war machine and (b) an inside job by the US government’s war machine.

No wonder the left derides those boorish enough to bring this stuff up: Why, surely all sophisticated persons know these positions are little more than lifestyle accessories or fashion hemlines. One season, everyone on the catwalk is agreed 9/11 was blowback by Jihadists for Social Justice. The next, everyone is equally agreed that Bush called up the White House Steel Melting Czar and buried the whole thing under “miscellaneous” in the budget.

I heard somebody say this-I can’t remember who it was, so sorry-but…if you really and truly believed that the American government had incinerated 3000 people, that knowledge would inexorably force you out of the country.  How could you stay?  You know your government is capable of anything at anytime; you’d have to feel like you could easily get caught up in yet another false flag operation.

The problem is, most Truthers don’t believe it.  You know this because of the intellectual journey of Van Jones.  First 9/11 was America’s comeuppance for *fill in the blank with any leftist Bogey man-environmental degradation/support for Israel/oil/capitalism/failure to sign Kyoto/blah blah freakin’ blah.  Several years on and 9/11 has become an inside job and the MIHOP theory is the de rigeur position for Jones and his ilk.

Again, it’s not terribly surprising that Obama would have a hammerhead like Van Jones in his coterie of radicals.  St. Barry managed to pal around with any and every left-of-Trotsky fleabrain he came across in his intellectual travels.  What is sorta freaky is how silent the MSM was reproting the truth about Van Jones.  I don’t blame Obambi for hiring Van Jones; this president simply cannot help himself.  I am mildly annoyed that nobody in the major news reporting community saw fit to discuss Jonesy at all until the Glenn Beck, the bloggers and normal annoyed citizens did all the legwork.

If I didn’t know any better, it’s almost like the media is covering for their dreamy presidential man-crush or something.

Short was the reign of Czar Van Jones the Green Marxist

Well, we didn’t kill Obama-Care…but something went our way for once. 

The AP is reporting that Van Jones has resigned from the Obama White House due to controversy over several past statements.  More will follow, of course, but the real question is:  Who will now take over the crucial Green Jobs Czar position that was so important to America’s historic rise that St. Barry created the job title a few months ago? 

As good as that feels, the fact that Van Jones was hunky-freakin’-dory for so long with the MSM is kinda discouraging. 

Oh well.  A win is a win is a win.

Meanwhile, Charles Johnson puts on a stiff upper lip over this distressing news.  Would that American politics could be more like…well, Little Green Footballs.  Charles Johnson’s quick ban-hammer would crisply delineate the cool and the not-cool, and all Republican messages/ads/essays/thoughts would have to be submitted to the mighty CJ for approval.

Why Conservatives Need A Comprehensive Health Care Reform Plan

The last few months have been an exciting time for the anti-big gubmint coalition.  They’ve organized tea parties, they’ve scared the bejesus out of Democratic and Republican legislators at town halls and even gotten a finger bitten off by a so-called pacifist health care reform advocate.

The problem is, even with all that excitement, the likelihood is that America will see some kind of ridiculously bad anti-free market soft socialist health care reform bill get signed by the Anointed President.  This will negate much of the gains the nascent anti-government movement has made and put the US on the no-growth paternalistic busybody state trail that the Euro-dweebs have blazed for the last 50-odd years.

Among the many opportunities lost during the Bush Administration (some of it’s own choosing, some dictated by dire circumstances), the lack of a free-market health care reform effort now looks like one that will hurt us dearly.  By not taking away the health care issue, it has given Democrats far too much rhetorical and political firepower; up until a few months ago, they owned the health care issue and used it as a club to beat Republicans over the head.  More importantly, with Bush not coming up with and passing a conservative answer to the health care debate, it has given the Left a golden opportunity to vastly expand the scope of federal government into a soft socialist direction.

It shouldn’t have been this way.  For the last 15-20 years, the Democrats have run on some form of big government health care reform.  No major Democrat presidential in the last two generations has run without a semi-socialist medical system in their domestic policy cupboard.  It’s not like the GOP couldn’t see this coming-for decades.

Republicans have their own ideas about health care, but being blundering idiots, they do not publicize them until Democrat presidents have already seized the initiative.  By that point, the GOP just looks like hapless me-tooers. 

More important than the vagaries of political tactics, it’s clear that the socialist project to turn America into a leftist nation is best served through massive government-run health care.  In no other way can the leftoid movement seize so much power over so many Americans in such a short amount of time than through control over their medical coverage.  The Marxists and many of the Democrat Party intelligentsia have known this fact for years.  On the other hand, it has taken this dire moment for many American conservatives to figure just how central big government medicine is to the socialist paradise the Left has planned for America.

Conservatives have already lost a lot of time. Within the next few months, the Democrats will have passed and signed a health care reform bill that will be anathema to American free-market traditions and constitutional forms.  While the final shape of ObamaCare is unknown-public option or no public option, co-ops, IRS as medical enforcer-it is sure to be very offensive to conservative principles…and American ones as well.

For these reason, the conservatives must push the GOP to not only undo whatever damage Barack’s plan will inflict on America, but to create a free-market reform of our own.  Being grounded in both reality and the Constitution, it cannot make pie-in-the sky promises to cover every American.  Instead, it must address the issues that most trouble Americans with market-based solutions.  Portability, reducing costs, regional/state population differences, decentralization and choice must be the centerpieces of any bill that comes out of the conservative movement.

Most of all, the GOP must make this a domestic priority the next time they get power.  The Donkey-Puncher Party will not be in control forever.  At some point, Pelosi, Reid and even St. Barry of the Sacred ACORN will be in our rear-view mirror.  The Republicans cannot use the old tactics.  They can’t wait till Democrat presidents have taken control of the health care debate to roll out their conservative reform plans.  They have to take the issue away from the Democrats before the leftists can use it to take America further down the road to serfdom.

For a more comprehensive look at what the GOP should be doing for the 2010 elections, see Doctor Zero’s piece.

Charlie Rangel’s subordinates: Just as shady as he is

Is there something in Charlie Rangel’s office that brings on the premature Alzheimer’s?

Charlie Rangel’s “forgetfulness” is apparently contagious.

Two of his top aides are among about a dozen highly paid staffers on the powerful tax-writing Ways and Means Committee who have filed a flurry of amendments correcting their financial-disclosure statements since 2002.

Jim Capel, chief of staff for Rangel’s personal office, failed to file any such statements for six years.

On the afternoon of July 14, Capel filed five years’ worth of delinquent reports.

Capel told The Post yesterday it was a simple oversight.

“I am sorry for not making these filings in the timely manner as required,” he said. “My failure was not done for no other reason than I just forgot to do so.”

…a dozen top staffers for the Ways and Means Committee, which Rangel chairs, and Rangel’s personal office who have filed a combined 24 amendments over the past seven years.

As Nickie Goomba said in a comment on an earlier post, none of these congress-critters can yank their feedholes away from the public trough, not even for a second.  But it’s even worse than he thinks.  It turns out it isn’t just the Representatives; anyone even kinda sorta connected with a politician thinks he’s entitled to special treatment from the IRS and other gubmint agencies. 

Slowly…we’re turning into a nation of men, not laws.

All your Congressional seats are belong to us Democrats-NOT!

I know, stupid headline but…

There’s a myth circulating in the blogosphere and the punditry, and it is threatening the Democrats’ majorities. It goes like this: In 1994, Democrats failed to pass a healthcare bill, and they lost their majorities. Ergo, if Democrats fail to pass a healthcare bill in 2009, they will be at serious risk of losing their majorities in 2010, so to save their majorities, they should make certain above all else to get something passed…

The frustrating thing about this myth is not only that it is becoming so widespread, but also that it is so deeply misguided. The Democrats did not lose Congress in 1994 because they failed to pass health care reform. They lost Congress in 1994 because they failed to rally the publicbehind health care reform. Had Democrats successfully sold Clintoncare to the public and then passed it, their majorities might have been saved. But had Democrats gone ahead and passed it anyway, under the conditions that existed in summer of 1994, their losses likely would have been even greater than they ultimately experienced in November…

In other words, the problem for Democrats in 1994 was not that they didn’t support Clinton’s agenda enough. It was that they got too far out in front of their conservative-leaning districts and supported the President too much.

…the bottom line is that, holding all other things equal, a Democrat in a Republican district who voted for the assault weapons ban lost 4.2 percentage points off of his 1992 numbers. If the same Democrat voted for the Clinton budget, she lost 3.7 points. In other words, these two votes alone could take a Democrat who won a comfortable election with 56 percent of the vote in 1992, and turn her into a loser in 1994.

This illustrates the incredibly tough roe the Democrats have to hoe.  The public is not at all supportive of Obama-Care.  The more they hear about it, the more they hate it.  Meanwhile, the Democrats from GOP districts know this and at the same time are being arm-twisted by Rahmbo Emmanuel, Pelosi and O’Bammy to go along with their health care deform plans. 

By pounding on his high-chair and demanding a bill be passed this year, Barack has put all Democrats, but especially those in right-ish districts, in a no-win situation.  If they vote for the bill, it is a near-certainty that they will lose their elections in 2010.  If they vote against the bill, they will forfeit massive amounts of campaign funds that would be ladled into their coffers by Pelosi et. al. 

As Sean Trende suggests in the article, the Democrats and Obama have done a terrible job of selling this plan to the American people.  Senior citizens especially are recoiling in horror from what they rightly see as government rationing that will make their lives less comfortable and a good deal shorter.  Oldsters are reliable voters and if you have them on your side on an issue, it gives you a great deal of play amonsgt other demographic groups.  If you lose them, they’ll merrily vote against you and that means you’ll have to dig up huge numbers of votes from someplace else.  Even with ACORN on your side to bring out the dead guy/illegal immigrant/out-of-state voters to the polls, that’s still a very hard place to be if you’re a politician looking to get re-elected. 

I still think the Democrats will still get a bill.  I am sure that the bill will be highly objectionable to those of us who like free markets and know how bad big government will be on health care.  Having said that, the Democrats have managed to screw the pooch on this one royally.  Any good will that people had for Teleprompter Jesus and the rest of the Donkey-Puncher Party is gone.  Barring some completely unforeseen miracle, I don’t think they can get it back.  It might be a very long and painful 2010 for the Democrats.

Hat tip to Patterico for finding the RCP piece.

Note to self-The WWF pretty much suck

The World Wildlife Fund decided to make an ad.  Check it out, especially if you’re totally chillaxed about media dorks downplaying 9/11.

Dig the groovy endline: “Our planet is brutally powerful-Respect It, Conserve It.”

If the planet is a terrorist, like this ad seems to imply, I don’t want to respect or conserve it.  I want to call in Special Ops, a carrier group, a few dozen Daisy Cutters and possibly some tactical nukes if the Mother Earth keeps screwing with us.

I wonder why the WWF would want to go into the cloud-cuckoo territory occupied most famously by PETA.  The ad is sorta saying that Earth is a living being and that pollution makes it angry enough to unleash natural disasters.

I for one think this is great.  For a long time the eco-loons said our third stone from the sun was this fuzzy lovey huggy wuss-bag that just took our crap and never gave us any trouble.  Now they’re saying that this blue-green orb of ours is a gigantic pissed-off human hater that will fuck our shit up with extreme prejudice if we toss a gum wrapper out of our cars or piss on an endangered slug by accident.  While neither story makes any rational sense, at least the tree-humpers are changing up the narrative to stay current with the plot of a crappy M. Night Shyamalan movie.

UPDATE: The ad got yanked on Youtube, but Ed Driscoll, one of the fine fellows over at PJTV, has a link.  Seriously, relive 9/11…only this time, multiply it by 100 or so, then get slapped in the face with a douchetastic tree-toucher message.

Van Jones, the class act

We met Van Jones a while back.  Now, he’s returned.  This time, he’s helping to advance Barack Obama’spost-partisan era of working with all sides of every issue to move America towards a supercool new era of totally awesome awesomeness.

PSYCH!!!!!!!!!

No, Van Jones is a total prick-eared douche.  He’s a long-time hater of anybody to the right of Noam Chomsky with an chip on his shoulder against free markets, the US and presumably baseball as well. 

He’s also St. Barry’s green jobs czar.  So he’s not just some average White House flunky, he’s got an extra-constitutional job title and all the authority that entails.  Pretty sweet.

You can fill in any “What if GW Bush had done that/said that/appointed that” comment here.  The fact that a socialist weasel like Van Jones is a non-story for the MSM is pretty much standard operating procedure.

UPDATE:  Ace has some newish dirt on our buddy Van the Man.  The hits just keep on coming for Jonesy.

The Most Ethical Congress in History

 

Charlie Rangel Edition.

Last week, we learned that Rangel filed a grossly misleading financial disclosure report for 2007 — failing to report at least half a million dollars in assets.

It turns out Rangel had a credit union account worth at least $250,000 and maybe as much as $500,000 — and didn’t report it. He had investment accounts worth about the same, which he also didn’t report. Ditto for three pieces of property in New Jersey.

Beyond that, we’ve learned that Rangel has failed to report assets totaling more than $1 million on legally required financial disclosure forms going back to at least 2001.

The news comes on top of revelations last year that Rangel didn’t report — and didn’t pay taxes on — income from a villa in the Caribbean. In that matter, the Internal Revenue Service gave him sweetheart treatment; Rangel paid about $10,000 in back taxes but was not required to pay any penalty or interest.

Oopsies. 

Think back to the car dealer that was owed a pile of dough from the feds.  Then look at how Charlie Rangel is treated.

Sensing a pattern?